SINGAPORE, July 3 Kyodo Singapore...

SINGAPORE, July 3 Kyodo

Singapore conduct investment holding company Temasek Holdings said Wednesday it is prepared to dilute its stake through welcoming mergers and acquisitions of high-potential government-linked companies (GLCs)

Temasek, which released a charter onward Wednesday to explain its stance onward the future of GLCs, said it plans to remain involved in high-potential GLC yet is willing to accept merger and acquisitions.

''Temasek is prepared to dilute its stake by the agency of the issuance of recent shares or mergers or acquisitions in order to support the long-term successe of these companies as regional or international players,'' the charter said.

It said Temasek is ''open to assemblage B companies partnering other companies or shareholders to regionalize or internationalize where it makes strategic or commercial sense''

Companies that fall into arrange B are mainly those considered to have potential to extend beyond Singapore, whereas Group A companies include those judgeed critical to Singapore's security or economic well-being, or where ownership enables the restraint to achieve specific public policy objectives.

cluster B companies include PSA Corp., which operates four container terminals in Singapore and is also involved in 13 port schemes in eight countries, and the progress to maturity Bank of Singapore (DBS) which provides banking services to more than 5 million customers in 13 Asia-Pacific countries.

At the same time, the charter said, it is prepared to pick out those companies, though not many in number, that are supposeed non-strategic to Singapore or have little potential to germinate beyond the country.

''We have divested many, many companies, more than 60 companies'' Temasek Chairman s Dhanabalan told a news conference

''The number of companies that we actually want to divest are extremely few,'' he said, adding that no time frame has been wager because ''there are many issues which we ne to take into consideration before we divest.''

''Those (companies) that are not relevant to Temasek's objective, we will divest them at an appropriate time when the market is right,'' he said.

The charter said the conduct will retain its majority curb of those companies involved with water, power and gas grids, the airport, the seaport, public broadcasting, subsidized healthcare, education, housing and gaming.

The top 22 companies in the Temasek stable alone accounted for 13% of Singapore's gros domestic proceeds (GDP) in 1998.

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